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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says police have arrested the director of the company that owns the metals plant where a reservoir flooded several towns with toxic red sludge. ((Associated Press))

Authorities say rescue teams have found the body of an elderly woman who had been missing since Hungary's flood of caustic red sludge began, raising the death toll of the disaster to eight.

Disaster agency spokesman Tibor Dobson said the body was discovered Monday near Devecser, one of several towns in western Hungary that were hit by the flood a week ago. The woman was the last person reported missing.

In Kolontar, a nearby town, workers are building a new containment wall in the damaged storage reservoir because cracks have been found in an existing one, raising fears it could break and release more sludge.

Meanwhile, Hungary's prime minister said police have detained the director of the company that owns the metals plant where the reservoir broke, flooding the towns with the toxic red sludge.

Speaking Monday in parliament in Budapest, Viktor Orban says the government must take over direction of MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, and freeze its assets.

Orban also said the safe restart of production at the alumina plant is in the public interest and is needed to save the jobs of thousands of workers.

The red sludge deluge started Oct. 4 from a 10-hectare storage pool where a byproduct of aluminum production is kept.